The Ringer NFL Show - Franchise Tag Deadline and Oscar Comps | Dual Threat

Episode Date: March 6, 2024

Nora, Steven, and Lindsay open by discussing some of the top players that have been franchise tagged and what it means for their future negotiations. In honor of the 2024 Oscars, they continue by comparing the best remaining free agents to some Oscar-nominated films. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out theringer.com/RG to find out more, or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Hosts: Nora Princiotti, Steven Ruiz, and Lindsay Jones Producer: Stefan Anderson Additional Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal and Conor Nevins Musical Elements: Devon Renaldo Social: Kiera Givens and Eduardo Ocampo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There are a lot of quarterbacks in the NFL draft this year. My name is Ben Solac and I host the Ringer NFL Draft Show with Danny Kelly, Danny Hyfitts, and Craig Horleback. We cover trades, free agency, and the draft, which is, yeah, obviously. We'll tell you about everything, which includes which quarterbacks are good, which quarterbacks are bad and which quarterbacks are just Kirk Cousins. That is the Ringer NFL Draft show. Search the Ringer NFL Draft show on Spotify. Hello, and welcome to Duelgret on the Ringer NFL show feed. I'm Nora Prenciotti. As always, I am here with Stephen Ruiz.

Hello, Stephen. How are you doing this afternoon? I'm doing quite well. I can't wait for free agency. I'm so excited. It's thrilling. That's so great to hear. And we are also so lucky to be joined by Lindsay Jones, sort of our free agency correspondent. Lindsay, are you, do you accept my premise and that role in being here today and enjoy joining us to impart all of your free agency wisdom? I do. Thank you for letting me join the pod. And I hope just not to embarrass myself too much. Letting me is a very funny construction of that. Like Stephen and I were like, like waved a wand and said,

We bestow you with the opportunity to join the pod. We're very lucky to have you here. It is franchise tag day. The deadline has passed. We are recording this at 508 p.m. Eastern time on Tuesday, March 5th. Which means that an hour and eight minutes ago, the franchise tag deadline came and went.

Eight players have received the franchise tag. Kyle Dugger got the transition tag from the Patriots, which was sort of random, but we'll talk about that later. No huge surprises, I think, from this group. The names are T. Higgins was tagged by the Bengals, Legerius Sneed by the Chiefs, Brian Burns by the Panthers, Jalen Johnson by the Bears, Justin Matabeeke by the Ravens, Josh Allen, the other Josh Allen, by the Jaguars, Anthony Winfield Jr. by the Bucks, and then Michael Pittman by the Colts.

And I think the way that maybe we can do some reactions and talk about this is separate this group into one group of the players where the tag is a step on the road to, at least it seems like, in some way, shape or form, keeping that player on the same team

in the fall, whether that's on the tag or whether that's having worked out a long-term deal, reading the tea leaves, talking to people, hearing from GMs and coaches at the combine, seeing some of the reporting today, the vibe is that they're staying put one way or another. And then there's a group of three. And I'm curious if you guys think that this is the right way to sort of split the groups here. To me, it's T. Higgins, Legerius Sneed, and Brian Burns, where, it's a little more up in the air

and a tag and trade feels a little bit more possible in those three cases. Lindsay, do you feel like that's the right split where I have a little bit more confidence with the other five that they will stay on their current rosters?

Yeah, I think so. You know, the tag and trade scenario is fairly rare. I mean, it's not completely uncommon. You know, it has, it does happen from time to time. there was the Frank Clark, I believe the Frank Clark situation a couple years ago, DeFonte Adams, that's how he went from the Packers to the Raiders a few years ago.

Dee Ford, I believe, the chiefs tagged and traded him to the Niners. So it does happen, but it's not super common. It's not something that we're going to see every single year. But those three that you laid out are ones where there's been a lot of reporting already that, you know, there was very unlikely that there was. unlikely that there was going to be a long-term deal reached and these guys could go out and start seeing if a trade would be possible. And these are teams, you know, with the chiefs and Sneed, they have done this before. They have a lot of young corners. You know, Higgins and the Bengals have

some, you know, they have other salary cap issues that they are dealing with there. And it's really hard to keep that sort of core together. And you've already paid Joe Burrow and you're going to have to pay Jamar Chase. And at some point, something has to give. So I do think that's the right group, the one guy that I would maybe kind of put creeping into that category, it'd be Josh Allen with the Jaguars. I think it's still likely that they keep him. They weren't going to just let him walk. But I would say he may be, you know, maybe some teams should explore what it would take to trade for him.

Sure. Yeah. Now, that's an interesting one. So why don't maybe we start with him? Because I think let's start with the group where things seem a little bit more copacetic or a little bit easier to sort of work out the details in terms of keeping the player on the same team. So that's Jalen Johnson, Matabeeke,

Josh Allen, as you just said, Winfield and Michael Pittman. Stephen, just from that group, any surprises there for you, any standouts, any things you're watching from that set of players? No, from that set, like it makes total sense So they got the tag. I think Jalen Johnson is a player that's underappreciated by the masses. Like when you really watch him play, you can see he is the perfect modern corner for like a sub-superstar level.

Like he's not a guy I would pay to be a quarterback one. But he's a high-end cornerback too, and those are hard to come by in today's NFL. Then Justin Madibuque is one where I think they should just pay him whatever he wants. I think he's a really good player, an ascending player. His best years are ahead of him. And if you look at his underlying metrics, it suggests that he can get even better than he was last year when he had this breakout year in his contract season. I wouldn't be worried about him. Josh Allen is an interesting name because he has the 17 and a half sacks from last year.

But if you look at his past production, he's the one where you're asking, is this a contract year thing? Did he just break out in this one year because he wanted to get paid? He's going to revert back to what he was. He does have good underlying metrics with like pressures and hits. but I don't think he's like a 25 million per year type of edge rusher. I think he's more like a 20 million per year kind of guy. And if you can get him for that, that's a good deal. If you have to overpay him or you have to pay him more than that, then I'm worried.

Yeah, in general, I really don't like the idea of a team in the Jaguar's position being in the business of, you know, you have a homegrown player who's developed into a top-tier part of your defense. you want to reward that, right? Like, you don't want to let that person eventually walk out the door. I do, I get the tag in that situation. There are a couple that we'll talk about here where, you know, maybe just in the moment in this cycle, this offseason, this March, it makes sense for where you've come to to use the tag,

but where the tag is sometimes evidence of earlier off seasons of mismanagement, of not locking up. someone that you drafted and developed. In this case, I sort of get it. I also think it's notable that they were able to designate him as a linebacker and not as a defensive end, which is why he earned $24 million on the tag. It would have been more if he had been classified at a different position. And that will sort of set the tone for where those negotiations go.

I am with you, Stephen, that I don't like hate running the risk in his case if something doesn't work out just because it was a career outlier, but in general, he might not be a 17 and a half sack level finisher, but he's a solid player. He's someone that they should want to build

around. Yeah. And I think you made a good point with like, it matters when you resign players that you develop yourself. I think the rest of the locker room sees that as like reward for him working hard and putting in the time to develop. And so I

to argue that he has more value to that locker room and to that team than he does out on the open market to one of the other 31 teams who aren't getting like the bonus of other guys in the locker room, other young people in the locker room seeing a player cash in after having a productive rookie contract. Were you at all surprised that, I mean, if they hadn't used the tag on Josh Allen, it probably would have gone to Calvin Ridley. It was sort of the other possibility. Is that at all surprising to you, Lindsay? No, I think, you know, I think it made sense that it was going to go to Josh Allen. And, you know, Ridley now is kind of becomes an interesting case. And we'll talk about him a little bit more now based on what the wide receiver free agent market looks like. But no, I mean, I thought it was trending in the way that it was going to be Josh Allen. And, you know, this past pressure market is going to be really interesting. And, you know, that market is exploded in recent years. Nick Bosa is now making about 30 million. million dollars a year. You know, I think, you know, Shil Kapadia, who ranks and analyzes all the free agency moves for us at the ringer, he put Montez Sweat as like an interesting comp for Josh Allen and what sort of contract he might be seeking. And, you know, let's remember, Sweat's deal that he signed with the Bears last year was at 24 and a half million. And that's just slightly over what the one-year tag comp is. So it seems like he's kind of right in that range of what

maybe his market was going to be. I would be curious what he would get if he were to actually hit the open market. But it seems fair right now. So I think it's probably the right move and probably the right move for the Jags as well. And looking ahead, I mean, they've used other front seven picks on first round picks in recent year, or on their first rounders, right? They've got Tavon Walker. Sorry, as I'm going back. Yeah, Trayvon Walker and Devin Lloyd from 2022, front seven picks with first round. Front seven first round picks, excuse me, my English is terrible tonight. So, you know, they're going to have to make a lot of decisions about how they want to allocate resources and their, you know, their finances over the next couple of years, particularly

in that front seven. With Mattibuque, just because we were talking about him earlier, I'm, I'm, I think, in agreement with Stephen that, you know, whatever it takes, just figure it out. I think there's a pretty high degree of confidence that that'll get done. Ravens have a pretty solid track record of eventually reaching a contract extension with the guys that they tag. I think it's six of the last eight. That obviously includes Lamar and that was a one-of-one situation. But in general, they don't tag in vain.

They find a way to make it work and I figure that'll get done there. That's another situation where using it in this way means that they did not use the tag on Patrick Queen. That makes sense to me, but this is another situation where there is a guy who's going to hit free agency, who's going to be a relatively high profile

and interesting free agent, who would have been the other option. Stephen, did that strike you in any way as a decision for them? I wasn't surprised at all. I think buying time with Matabuque and getting that contract structure right is important. And I don't think the Ravens,

are going to be too broken up about seeing Patrick Clean Leave Town. We know they love a comp pick. I think that organization values those comp picks more than any other in the league. And I think he's going to fetch him a good one. I think he's going to make a lot of money. We'll talk about this in the next segment when we talk about the free agents that are on the market. But I think a lot of his late rookie contract improvement had to do with having Roquant Smith next to him.

Like, you watched that first year together. And you could see Roquan Smith kind of pointing assignments out to him before the snap. And I think having that just bank of knowledge before the snap helped him play faster and helped him take advantage of all that athleticism. I think if you see him go to another defense, another system that doesn't have those guardrails built into it, I think you're going to see a lot of his flaws come out as we saw in the first three and a half years, or two and a half years, I guess, of his rookie contract. But like the Ravens told us everything we need to know about this player last year.

when they had the option to pick up his fifth year option and they declined that. I think they are, I think they're willing to see him walk out the door. So I don't think, I didn't have any issue with how they kind of use the tag. It is interesting. And we'll get to, I think Queen is like one of the most interesting questions on, on the market. Just because all of that is true. Also, there's some pretty good film from, you know, if you watch back this year and you watch back like what he has looked like in pairing with Roquan, there's an argument to be made that that's someone who, you know, could

really help a defense unlock, play fast, really help someone's team if what we were watching was not at least once they got used to it and once things sort of clicked was actual development and actual learning and Roquan teaching him something as opposed to saying, I'm going to go over here, you go over there and doing the paint by numbers thing. to your point, and I think it's an important one. It does seem like the Ravens have sort of telegraphed what they think the answer to that is, but I'm not sure that that'll be the answer that, you know, everyone league-wide for better or for worse, comes down with.

Lindsay? Can I make one more, one more point about. Lindsay is like pointing her finger up on the Zoom. I'm like, call on me, please. One more thing about Justin Matabuque. I do think the Ravens of pretty much any team who franchise tag, anybody at the deadline seem to be probably the most motivated to get a long-term deal done based on their salary cap situation. That 22 million is a lot for them, and it would be very,

very, very helpful for them to structure the deal in a way that would give them a little bit more room. They, even with the cap rising up to $255 million this year, they're kind of in a tough spot. So they could really use the relief there. And that's not something that a lot of of these other teams are dealing with. They have, you know, they have space. There are some teams that are close, right? The chiefs, the bucks are not in like great situations, but they do, the Ravens especially need the flexibility.

So I think if I'm looking at, you know, who got tagged, who's most likely to get that extension, I would put, I would put Matabouquet right up the top. Sure. Yeah, no, that's a really good point. All right. So let's talk about the other three, because I think this is where it gets sort of more interesting. Let's start with T. Higgins.

who was tagged, you know, most of this stuff, we're watching ESPN or NFL network. We're on our phones. We're on Twitter. We're doing whatever all day, waiting for stuff to come out and things to get confirmed. T. Higgins was tagged like the second that they were able to tag him. And the vibe was very much, you know,

phones are open. Give us a ring. Getting out in front here on the Bengal side, just placing the tags so that they could put, potentially court opportunities for a tag and trade. I'm sure they would love to keep to Higgins long term, but as you pointed out, Lindsay, it's complicated with Borough, with Chase. I think there's, I wonder if there's like a little bit of regret of letting it get this far,

if there might have been an opportunity last off season, potentially to come to a longer term agreement and not end up here where, you know, a tag and trade is hard. because as you said, they're pretty rare and you're asking a team to give up a lot in terms of resources and then also to be paying a premium for a player. So, you know,

the draft capital is not always great. Stephen, what's your gut feeling on this? Do you think T. Higgins remains a Bengal? What would you think was a reasonable landing spot, compensation? Where do you think this ends up?

I think he stays in Cincinnati. I don't think Joe Burrow allows him to leave. And I think Joe Burrow has gotten to the status where he has a voice in that room. He has clout. He has enough clout to be like, I don't want T. Higgins to leave.

And I agree with you. It's kind of crazy the bagels. Let it get this far because I do think T. Higgins is one of those blue-chip players that you don't let leave the building. You don't let him wear another team's uniform as long as he's in his prime, as long as he's still at the top of his game.

If I were the Bengals, I just go for the like the Peyton Manning Colts model where I have two Hall of Fame receivers on the outside. I have a Hall of Fame quarterback. And then we just fill in the gaps and we figure everything else out. And we've seen when all three of these guys are healthy and playing at the top of their games,

like this is one of the best offenses in the NFL. It's a top five offense. And the shortcut to contention in this league is having a top five offense. And as long as you have Big Lou back there, like coordinated the defense, I know it took a huge step back last year. And I think the roster got a lot worse

than we all realized. But give them some reinforcements. and he'll cook up a good meal for you. And then on the other side of the ball, you have these three stars that I think could carry you through the next 10 years if they stay healthy. So if I'm the Bengals, I'm not even thinking about trading.

I'm not even looking at the market and asking what I can get back for it. Because I'm thinking, like, what's the most you can get back for a player that I think, I think the Bengals value him as a wide receiver one, but I don't know if the rest of the league is going to just because we haven't seen him in that role. We haven't seen how he would produce

when he has all eyes on. him because he's always had Chase back there. But I maintain that, like, on third down, if it's like third and long, third and medium, T. Higgins is the player that Joe Burrow is looking at, not necessarily Jamar Chase. Joe Burrow can't get his teammates three meals a day from the cafeteria. Only on Wednesday.

I don't know. Wait, wait, wait. Why do you need three meals during a workday? Because they play a sport for a living. They lift weights all day. They run around. They hit people. They're hungry.

Okay, one big meal. One big meal takes care of that. I'm team the Browns on this one. Everyone calls the Browns cheap. I'm not giving out three meals. They have a business to run, okay? That's what they're going to say to T. Higgins when they trade him for like a second round pick and everyone's pissed.

Part of the business is winning football games. You win football games by paying T. Higgins. You don't win football games by giving your football team three meals in like an eight-hour workday. I'm not sure that's right. But I take it. your point. I went to the Big Data Bowl this year, and they didn't say anything about three meals a day.

They said T. Higgins is good. And they said that you don't need three meals. No. The Big Data Bowl is pro T. Higgins and I don't understand it. Anti-breakings. Yes. Lindsay, you look like you're getting to jump in there. Well, I mean, I think the point that you brought up, Stephen, about how does the rest of the league view him?

Do they view him as a wide receiver one? we just haven't seen it. But the rest of this free agent class at receiver is not great. Mike Evans has already signed. He was probably the wide receiver two in this class behind T. Higgins. So if you are a team who wants to upgrade a wide receiver and you want a veteran this year, trading for T. Higgins is probably the best you're going to do. This draft class seems to be completely loaded at receiver. So, you know, there's going to be lots of opportunities there. But, But I'm curious to see this offseason as we move into the rest of this month, if those wide receiver trades are still in vogue, if that's still a thing that teams are really wanting

to do because, you know, we've seen a lot of teams make big moves there and they've paid off in a way that maybe the recent quarterback trades have not. So I think that's why he's so intriguing and why, you know, the tag and trade scenario for him is more interesting to me than it is with a couple of the other guys. It's just because we've seen teams make those aggressive moves for wide receivers. The big question is, is there one team? I mean, and all it takes is one, right? Who says, this is a wide receiver one, and I want him to be my, you know,

lead receiver in a way that the Bengals haven't been able to use him yet. Are you saying you're not excited about Michael Pittman's 10-yard per catch average? You're not excited about that? I am not. receiver one? I'm not. I'm sorry. Sorry, Michael Pitman, who I covered his dad, by the way, so I feel so old. He's a great possession receiver. Okay, can I, sorry, this is a tangent. I discovered in prepping for this pod that Chris Jones is younger than me. Yeah, yeah, he's, he's like, how old is he? He's like, only like 27 or 28. He's 29. He's, his birthday is like early July.

my birthday is late June in 1994. He's like a week younger than me. When I tell you, that threw me for a loop. Just wait until we talk about Josh Jacobs and the terms we use to talk about Josh Jacobs. And then when you look at his age and you realize he's only 26, that will make you feel old. He's 26 years old. He's like the most geriatric 26-year-old walking dessert. But back to T. Higgins.

Last thing on T. Higgins. This is one where I don't hate the idea of, of if he just played out the tag, it wouldn't be an abject disaster. Yeah. It's not great. Like, no team should be getting, you know,

a round of applause for like, here's this guy who could be, if not a clear wide receiver one for anyone. Kind of qualifies in your offense. And it has just been a really impressive player and has been really valuable. And you're just going to let him walk out the door for nothing. Like,

that's not great. We don't want to be in the business of doing that. That said, for where the Bengals are, with Borough, being in the window, and getting into the space where Borough contract gets really expensive, got to figure out the Jamar Chase situation, trying to maintain some degree of, let's give Big Lou something to work with on defense. I get it.

on some level it's okay because that one year of T. Higgins could end up mattering a lot more than say, you know, we're going to talk about Brian Burns in a minute where Brian maybe like the Panthers may have given up two firsts in a second in a trade offer for Brian Burns to have him collect eight sacks in a two win season. Right? Like that's not the calculus with T. Higgins. So it's a little bit more justifiable, still not ideal. See, I disagree. I think if he is not a bangle in two years, it's a disaster. And the reason why I think that is, I think this offense is a little more predicated

on the specific talents they have at receiver than we like to realize, then we realize. Like, it's not about replacing, because I've seen like the suggesting that you could trade T. Higgins for a first round pick and kind of do what the Vikings did, where they replace step on Diggs with Justin Jefferson, which obviously, if you can land the best receiver in the NFL in this trade, then yes, by all means, do that. But I think it's going to be hard to replace T. Higgins because it's not just, oh, we need another receiver that's as good as him, as productive as him. I think you need a wide receiver that can win 50-50 balls like he does on the outside. And I would say the same thing for Jumar Chase. One of the reasons the Bengals' offense is so hard

to defend is because those two guys on the outside command double teams. And if you don't double team them, Joe Burrow is just going to throw back shoulder all day. And they're going to catch 50-50 balls against five 11 corners all day long. And then Joe Burrow also has the ability to go one to two to three to four in his progression really quickly and get to his checkdown. So that puts so much pressure on the defense. Now you take away one of those pieces on the outside. And now we can double Jamar Chase.

And the only other person we have to worry about is Alec Erickson. Like that, that offense becomes a lot easier to defend. I think you're just making up players now. Right, right. And the one coach that I don't think is going to be able to coach around that is Zach Taylor, like the one coach that we look at as maybe a top 10 coach. I don't think he's bringing that to the table. I think this offense is personnel dependent more so than other top offenses around the league.

And if they lose one of these pieces, it's going to look a lot different. And I'm not saying that they can't rebound from that. I'm just saying it's going to look a lot different and we don't know how it's going to look. Sure. Yeah. No, Bengals offense without two high-quality receivers, both of whom can win 50-50 balls, can win on the outside, changes dramatically.

Slightly different variant of that question is, if you only have one more year of Higgins, is it reasonable to expect, okay, that you're going to find Justin Jefferson? No, that you're going to find someone who can do that job, not necessarily, but it's a little bit more within the realm. But I, I, that's, I think it's definitely a fair point and maybe something that we are too generous with teams about in terms of like, oh, well, you know, players come and go, there's nothing they could

have done about it. They couldn't get a deal done. Like, they have had years. There, there, there have been multiple offseason at this point where one of the top, four most important players on that roster has been, has had a contract situation coming down the pipeline and it may come to an end without them having figured in their best interest. On a similar note, though I do think more egregious, can we talk about the Panthers? Do we have to? Do we have to pound?

Who can Like just a little bit of towning, maybe. Okay. This is horrible. Like, I'm sorry. But the, right, like, Brian Burns mismanagement is just, like, kind of criminal.

I mean, so he's another one who seems like a tag and trade candidate. There was a report, I think from Josian Anderson, that the Panthers told him at the combine that they were going to stop negotiating. But, like, that they were done talking for a little bit,

which doesn't seem great. And Brian Burns is an awesome player, absolutely someone who I would want to have on a roster. That said, if they're just going to, I mean, even if they got a first, which seems really hard given what the money is going to be, you're talking about a situation where they turned down

to firsts and a second. had another opportunity to try to trade him and didn't do it, and then are going to end up moving on for relatively pennies on the dollar, and what they gained was an eight sacks in a two-win season. It's just like this is not good roster management. No, no, it's not. And it hasn't been good roster management for like 10 years. This is the saddest thing about being a Panthers fan.

The best GM in the history of this franchise was Dave Gettelman. That's a sad fact about the Panthers organization. Would Dave Gettleton have gotten Brian Burns re-signed? Yes, he would have signed him in year three, the earliest he could have done it. The normal way to do it. They've been mismanaging this man since they drafted him. Like, Ron Rivera had him on, like, punt gunner duty in his rookie season, and he was like a productive first-round pick.

this will be the third straight year where the Panthers have gotten rid of their best player. It happened two years ago with Christian McCaffrey with the Christian McCaffrey trade, which seemed like a win at the time, but I got to say in hindsight, it doesn't feel like a win anymore. And then after that,

they trade away DJ Moore for a 5-10 quarterback. I'm not going to get into that. And then now they're going to let Brian Burns just walk away for nothing, nothing at all. Like, this doesn't really matter, but it kind of does. Like, if you were a Panthers fan and you were buying a jersey for like your

son or daughter for their birthday, which player would you buy? There isn't a jersey you would buy. What are you going to buy a Jeremy Chin jersey? I like Jeremy Chin. We all like Jeremy Chin, but no one's going to wear a Jeremy Chin jersey. Then you have to explain who Jeremy Chin is. There are probably people who wear Jeremy Chin. I don't know why I'm arguing with you.

I totally agree with you. What is that jersey? Chin. Chin, that's not a real person. like, yeah. Like, Jeremy Tid is a cool player, but like the best player is like a Dion Buchanan variant. Like, come on.

Yeah. Like, this is, sign your best players. Just keep them. What are you doing with that cap space? I'm sorry that this is, I think this is somewhat painful for you, Stephen. And I don't want to be causing that. I just,

I do think that like this time of year always comes around. And players switch teams, players get tags, players get traded, players are in free agency. And it's just all sort of normal. and it becomes like, oh, well, you know, they got this in return. They can use this draft pick and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Some of these are mistakes.

And some of these mistakes were made, you know, maybe the mistakes are being made now, but mistakes were being made last offseason and the off season before. And this one is pretty bad. Yeah. But, you know, good luck to Bradbrook. When this type of thing happens, like you, the only way it looks good is if you do good moves with the money you say,

right and like David Teper in this front office I don't want to go on Dan Morgan just yet he just got hired as the new GM I like Dan Morgan came from Buffalo fun fact first Panthers Jersey I ever own Dan Morgan love Dan Morgan but David Tipper case end point David Teper has I just think he has too much sway over what's happening and until that's proven false and he's like taking a step back, I have reason to doubt every move this team makes, and this is another one.

And I don't expect them to capitalize on whatever money they're saving by not paying Brian Burns and letting them walk for nothing. And I don't expect them to cash in on that third round comp pick that they're going to get in return. I just have no faith in this organization to do anything. Like, do the common sense thing. Just pay the good player that you could go, look, we have Brian Burns on our team. We have this one good thing.

You can buy his jersey. You can come and watch them. play, but now they're not going to have anything. So who cares? To Lindsay's earlier point, like, the tag and trade situation is relatively rare. That's in large part because it's just not great for anyone,

usually. Like, one team is saying goodbye to someone who's good enough to warrant a huge amount of investment for another team. it's usually happening because they couldn't get a long-term deal done at an earlier stage that would have ended up being positive in the long run. And then for the team on the other side, look, I really like Brian Burns.

I think any team in the league would be really lucky to have Brian Burns, and really happy to have Brian Burns. So I actually don't necessarily at the right price, and it does seem like the Panthers are really leveraged here. So I don't necessarily think that this actually applies to this situation. in general, it's a huge amount to give up, which is why you just don't see it happen that often. In this case, this might be a case where it would be worth it.

Again, the Rams were willing to give up two firsts in a second. It's not going to cost that right now. No. It's going to cost more money, but it's not going to cost that. So I don't necessarily think that this actually applies from the acquiring team's perspective. but in general, it's just not a common situation because it takes some mismanagement along the way. And I just, I'm struggling to think of that many other cases where it's so palpable as this one.

I think this is one of those times where you just have to like put your common sense dumb football guy on. Just pay them. Just give them whatever he wants and just keep them on the team. Like that's the only way to salvage this where it doesn't seem like you're getting pennies on the dollar. And it feels even worse because like I said, this team has. has had a habit of getting rid of their best players over the last couple years. And any player that any, like, fan can glom onto and kind of have hope for. Caps at $255 million.

Teams didn't necessarily expect it would be quite that high. Just find a way. I don't, it doesn't seem like that's where this is headed, but maybe, maybe they'll figure something out. I, that would, to me, that would be the best outcome. All right. Last one in this group is Ligerius need. And again, like, this is all a little bit of a similar vein.

So an hour and a half ago, let's call it, I had my TV on in the background and was like typing stuff up. And I think I heard Adam Schaefter on ESPN say that the Chiefs would be, would take a second round pick for Legerius Sneed. And my ears perked up because I was like, why would you do that? Like, what, that's figure it out. This is a really good player. I think this is like the test

if the Chiefs have a little bit too much dip on their chip after they got away with like the Tyreek thing they got away without skimping on the receivers last year. If they get rid of Sneed or they let them walk like are they trade them

I guess is all they can do. If they do that, now I'm starting to question you need good football players to win like Patrick Mahomes I think he's the best player ever I think he's the best quarterback in the NFL by why marketing.

Notably does not play defense. He does not play defense. You need defenders. And if you want to employ the type of game that they employed throughout the postseason, you need cornerbacks on the outside like Sneed. He's maybe my like sneaky, like favorite guy on this list.

Just in terms of a guy that I just, I love, I love watching him play and just like the value he brings to that defense is so tangible. It's, you know, you see it on a down-to-down basis. And it's to that defense. Like I love Sneed too. He's a great player. but his particular type of versatility is so good with spags and is so good in the way that they utilize him.

And I don't know that that carries over to, you know, 31 other teams. There's other smart defenses that I'm sure would get a ton out of him. But it just, that just, again, it seems like homegrown player, really talented guy, really good fit in their defense. The compensation that they're talking about, and I know that a, you know, look, the, they are trying to get a deal done with Chris, Jones and that's going to be expensive. And that's sort of the elephant in the room here is just do they have the money in both cases? And at a certain point that runs out, but also like, just figure it out. You can always figure out the cap.

It's fine. Don't let a player of this caliber walk out the door and be happy you got a second round pick and return. I just, it bums me out. And this team hasn't had a habit of like just paying defensive players. are paying any players, actually, if you think about it. Like, they let Tyreek, or they train at Tyreek. They've kind of played this game with Chris Jones for a few years now.

If they make a habit of this, I think like that becomes a thing in the locker room too. So I think just giving him the money, like, makes sense on the field and off the field for them. I think at a certain point we have to start talking out loud about the fact that the chiefs are cheap. Like, we just went about the players are talking about it. The players are really talking about it. Congratulations on your many Super Bowls, but this is an organization that according to its players does not like to spend money.

They also, they are low in over the last five years. I don't have the number in front of me, but their cash spending is relatively low. They also, the day that survey came out, they announced this big project on the stadium, not the player facility is the stadium, but they're also asking local, taxpayers for like a billion dollars in order to pay for it.

There might be a little bit of an issue with the NFL's latest dynasty being willing to spend money. And maybe Mahomes is so good that even though he doesn't pay defense, it doesn't matter. But just like, you know, I think in a lot of ways it makes sense to talk about the chiefs as this model organization in place that players want to go. They want to play for Andy Reid. They want to play with Mahomes. They want to get trophies. They want to be around that. And a lot of that is valid. also we are learning a lot of information about how that place is run that just like it doesn't seem ideal and it doesn't seem like they're willing to spend a lot of money in order to be as good as they

possibly can be. And so there's the, you know, the too much dip on their chip test seems like it's coming up and that definitely could have a root in their football successes and maybe that breeds a little bit of arrogance. It also could have some roots in, from what we know about this organization, they're not super eager to write a big check. How many meals per day are they getting? I do think they get three meals per day. They're just all barbecue, though. They're just not good. I think that was one of the, that was indeed one of the complaints. I do think the one other thing, they're willing to spend on their coaches, right? Steve Spagnolo, has gotten his extension.

Andy Reed, if the extension isn't already done, it should be done very, very soon. Dave Tob, their special teams coordinator, has already gotten an extension. And this is going to be a pretty big test if they do indeed let, you know, do execute a tag and trade here and let Legerius Sneed go.

And, you know, I think one of the reasons that maybe they're willing to do it, one, they have a complicated situation with Chris Jones who they're dealing with. But they've got some other really good young cornerbacks. And they think now, or the message seems to be that they believe that they are a, like, defensive back factory, that they can draft these guys, develop them and then churn them out. And that they look at the other guys that are there on their roster.

They look at Trent McDuffie, who is, you know, one of the unquestioned, like, stars of the postseason, and say, look what he did is our slot corner this year. How much, what else can you do? We can continue to, you know, develop him. And then in three years, tag and trade him for somebody else. So this is going to be a really big test if they do let them go for Spagnolo and Dave Merritt and that defensive coaching staff to make good on that and to show that they can really draft and develop. I just think they would regret letting a guy like Sneed go who's just so impactful on a stop basis for them. Are people not buying enough ketchup? Is there a bit of decline in the American consumption of ketchup?

Like are we, are we, they're those hunts, right? They're the ketchup hunts. I would have, yeah. Do we like Hunts ketchup? Not a big fan, honestly. I hate ketchup. The Hudson versus like the Heinz, the Pittsburgh thing, has been very underrated as an NFL rivalry. I'm doing it based on label alone, and the Hunt's label does do it for me.

All ketchup taste the same way. I mean, it's definitely like, again, I do not consume ketchup. My understanding is that Hunts is the second tier ketchup. What are you eating with fries? Nothing. Plain fries? I eat it. just raw dogging fries over here.

God Lord. I'll do like a little vinegar sometimes if it's presented to me and I don't mind an aoli, but I despise ketchup. It actually makes me gag. I do like a vinegar. Vinegar is good. Vinegar is good. Vinegar is good.

I don't. All right. I'm doing a little Googling. I think we might need a fact check. I don't think it's the same hunt family. They don't do ketchup? Yeah. It says, I don't think so.

I think it, I would be more surprised if there was two catch-up families in the NFL, so I'm not surprised. I did a little bit earlier for, producer, Sepon just flagged us, Nora didn't know you were a serial killer. Well, I agree. You'll learn something new every day. All right, well, we'll send the ketchup stuff to our fact-checkers and a report back later. Okay, it's going to really come as a shock to me if they're not the ketchup people.

And if so, apologies to the, real hunt family or whatever. Actually, I don't apologize. It's still second-tier catch-up, whoever owns it. I agree. We have a little game planned with some of the players who are hitting free agency. However, before we get there, anybody have any thoughts on Kyle Dugger getting the transition tag?

No, I said this before the recording. When I saw the news, I was like, classic. Bill Belichick when the rest of the league zigs you zag. And then I realized Bill Belichick is gone. But he's not gone. Like the ghost of Bill Belichick is very much running the Patriots right now. I'm concerned. I mean, I'm convinced of it.

Okay. I said I'm concerned. That was a Freudian slip. I am concerned and convinced of it, by the way. I mean, all the people who are running the Patriots learned how to run a football team from Bill Belichick. So in that sense, I don't know what we're expecting. Yeah. Look, the transition tag.

he's a sixth player to get it in the last 15 years. And there's really no rhyme or reason to what happens next. But he would make $14 million for one year under the tag. The way that it works is that the Patriots can match any outside offer that Dugger might get. But if they don't match it, they would get no compensation in return. So, you know, he can go see what's out there for him. And I've got to imagine this. means that internally in New England,

they don't think super highly about his chances to get something that would blow the tag value out of the water and would lead them to let him walk for nothing. But you never know. You think the franchise tag players bully and make fun of the transition tag players? I could say weren't good enough to get the franchise tag. It's kind of rude.

Like, it is kind of. They're like, come on, man. And like the not-exclusive franchise tag is another like subpar franchise tag. And where are the guys who are tendered have to sit? At least it's like more common. The transition, yeah, the transition tag, like the last one was Kenyon Drake from the Cardinals in 2020. Like that was, there's root then and it's root now. If you get the transition tag, you should only get two meals a day.

Well, he's playing for the Cardinals, so he was like thrilled to get two meals. That's a good point. I will say, before we start our game, I did a little bit more Googling, and I'm like 95% sure it's not the same Hunt's family. However, according to Wikipedia, in December 2018, NFL quarterback Patrick Mahomes signed an endorsement deal with Hunts. Mahomes is well known for his love of ketchup, even putting it on unconventional items such as steak and macaroni and cheese. Okay, so they might as well on them. They might as well on. From now on.

Oh, yeah, they just. You look horrified, Nora. What I'm horrified by is that I googled Where did the Kansas City Hunts make their money? It's just oil. They are from that. Like they started in Dallas. They're from Dallas.

So that makes sense. Yeah. The family's wealth comes from oil wildcatter, H.L. Hunt. Wildcatter. That's a word we don't have anymore. You don't hear of a lot of wildcatters thrown around. Ronnie Brown. Famous Wildcatter.

All right. Let's take a quick break. We'll come back. And we'll play a game that I know Lindsay's very excited about. All right. Welcome back to dual threat. So, it is Oscars Week. The Oscars are on Sunday.

And so we thought that a fun way to go through the remaining players, players who didn't or couldn't get tagged, some of the most notable free agents, would be to do some movie comps. We were going to do Oscars movies, but then Stephen, I think Stephen was like really dying to get a Madam Webb reference in here somewhere. I've seen like three of the Oscar movies.

Okay, I don't have good taste in movies. I don't know if the Oscars have good taste in movies. That's a good point. I've seen the nons. But anything goes. Let's start with Chris Jones. And I'm just going to say, so we have, we have 10 players here, I think. And I'm just going to throw out a name.

and if someone has a movie comp for the player that they feel good about, please jump in. So Chris Jones, anybody got a good one to start with? I feel good about this one. It's one of the few that I've seen that are nominated. He's Oppenheimer. And let me preface this.

I think Chris Jones is a very good movie. I thought Oppenheimer was a very good movie. But with Chris Jones, he doesn't really play run defense. He doesn't really try during the regular season. And like, you're there for the end. and you want to see him take over games and you're there for, you watch Ipenheimer

for the explosion, for the bomb going off. The big thing goes off and goes boom at the end. There's stuff in between there that's good and I like, but that's why you're picking up this player. That's why you're watching this movie and that's why it's my comic. So you're thinking in terms of like the bomb

going off is Chris Jones in December and January. Like turning it on in the playoffs, helping them win Super Bowls and the question is if you make this guy a $30 million-plus dollar a year player, is he going to be down-to-down that type of game record that you're hoping he will be at that rate?

I love it. And like the week five game where he's like taking rundowns off is like watching Oppenheimer like at a cocktail party and smoking cigarettes talking to some guy. Like I come on. Come on, Nolan. It's all the Emily Bloods scenes. Yeah. I went with the same com.

this is the heavyweight. You know, he's going to get all the big, big awards, big rewards, contracts probably going to be huge. I made an analogy with the explosion as well, but it was slightly different, which was just, you know,

there's the scene in Oppenheimer where, you know, without spoiling, they're talking about, well, there's, there's some chance that this just all blows up and, and the entire county is wiped off off the map.

and we all die. And to me, that's giving a 30-year-old football player a $30 million a year. It's just like, there's some chance that this all goes up in flames. That's a good analogy. It probably won't. But you got to be, you got to be aware of the possibility. Lindsay, have you seen Oppenheimer?

I have not seen Oppenheimer. This is going to be a trend. Just throwing this time. He's a committed parent. which does not necessarily come with a lot of free time to watch three-hour-long Chris Nolan movies. It's fine. I also have the link about the same attention span as my seven-year-old. So, you know, going to see the Paw Patrol movie is much more up my alley these days.

Okay, do you have a Paw Patrol comp for us? Well, so I will say I did see Paw Patrol a Mighty Movie the summer, I think, where all the puppies get superpowers. And Rocky's superpower is magnetism. Those spoilers, please. His superpower is magnitism. Can we put a disclaimer on the pod description? If you have not seen Paw Patrol, a mighty movie. Wait, do you have you, do you need to see the first Paw Patrol's to get the movie?

I know. And my daughter doesn't, is not even into Paw Patrol, but she decided she really wanted to see it. But it seems like you're the Paw Patrol fan in the family. But one of the puppies. has his superpower is magnetism. And if you've ever met Chris Jones, just magnetism. Just he exudes it.

Love it. Love it. Love it. Okay. Next on the list is Kirk Cousins. Stephen, I'm actually, I'm going to ask for your comp here again, too, because I just want to know what it is. I was going to try to squeeze in a sound of freedom joke, but I'm going to avoid that one. Killers of the Flower Moon. I have not seen this movie.

I plan on seeing it eventually. It's very long, and that's why I haven't seen it yet. But it's more of a Scorsesey comp for Kirk. Like, he's passed his best. It's going to be good. You know what you're in for. It's going to be good. But it's not going to win.

It's not going to win anything of note. It's not going to win the award. I think I looked up the odds. It's plus 3,300. That's like the fifth best odds. It's not going to win. So Kirk Cousins. And like, Scorsese can win, but everybody else kind of got.

It doesn't seem like there's all that much of a chance. It's interesting. I like it. Lindsay, did you have one for Kirk? So I Googled movies that came out in the last year. And I didn't see this, but apparently there was a movie called Old Dads. It was on Netflix. That's the winner.

That's it. That's Kirk, Old Dads. So it's going to be wherever he gets paid. There's been some rumors that maybe it's going to be Atlanta. He wants to move his family to Atlanta to the suburbs because that's, where his wife is from and his in-laws live in suburban Atlanta. And that is something that old dads do. So old dads.

I love it. I love it. I tried to make a really elaborate, um, poor things analogy about, oh, no. Oh, no. The play action merchant quarterbacks living in the in-between space of like knowingness and innocence. and Kurt having just arrived at the point of being a sentient being who is starting to see all of the various earthly pleasure.

This is too complicated for Kirk Cousins. This is a man who has a structure in his front yard where it's just a thing of rock. He can't even dress himself. Kirk also definitely, I'm so sure Kirk Cousins has not seen this movie. not that he is the intended audience for this analogy, but just like he didn't see this movie. No, Kirk Cousins does not see four things. If Kurt Cousins knew four things existed, he'd be very upset. And he would probably protest.

He'd be very, very upset. But yeah, no, no, Kirk Cousins is, he's, he's the Bella Baxter of the NFL. That's what I've decided. All right. Christian Wilkins. I got a good one for this one. All right. Okay.

Christian Wilkins is a good player. but he does some weird things. I don't know if you guys know his history of extracurriculars after the snap, but a very weird player, and I don't know if I want him on my team, but an entertaining player, a good thing. I'm going to go with Saltburn for this one.

I'm not going to explain it any further. Google Christian Wilkins, his interactions with some players to know what I'm talking about. Do not Google Salt Burn if you're on a work computer. Wait until you get home to Google that one. I did not watch this movie, but I was in the room while my wife watched it, so I watched it passively. And I saw enough. I watched Saltburn next to, like on an iPad next to my boyfriend who noticed none of it.

But the entire, I'm just thinking of what your wife must have been feeling watching that movie. Because the entire time I was watching Saltburn, I was like, how is he not clocking what? going on on this screen. Like, how do you exist in a room where these things are happening and just like totally going about his day? Absolutely no idea. But just an all-timer for a, if the person sitting next to you looks over at the wrong time, they're going to have so many questions.

It's a great calm. I mean, when we started to do this exercise, I think one of the first things that I was just like, okay. who gets the salt burn comp. Not to skip ahead. I gave it to Baker. I mean, short guy.

I hate it. Short guy with nebulously valid chip on his shoulder wiggles his way into elite society and cons his way into into a starting job. Like, I'm sorry, but Baker Mayfield has been salt burning us all this entire time. I'm going to recuse myself in this conversation.

They're just going to be playing. They're going to redo the progressive commercials, except they're going to do it at the Bucks Stadium. Or wherever he goes. There's been some recent reporting that, you know, he's told them that he will not take a hometown discount. Can it be a hometown if you were there for one year? If you're there, yes, I thought the same thing, too.

Like, it's a very good point. But they're just, they're going to redo those commercials and they're going to play murder on the dance floor and it's going to be Baker Mayfield. just like waltzing around, hopefully with clothes on. Sorry, spoiler alert. Another spoiler alert. It's newsday.

My comp for Christian Wilkins was dumb money, which is a movie that I actually still haven't seen. That was my Patrick Queen Tom. Okay. Okay. I just, I went because, look, like, dumb money is the, it's about the meme stock. It's about the game stop. And I wouldn't, like, don't take the comparison to,

don't think about it too hard or it starts to fall apart. But I just, I think Christian Wilkins is a really, really good player. I think the fact that he's hitting the market says, has the most to do with where the dolphins are financially. they're, I think, have the least cap flexibility of any team. And when they signed Zach Seeler at the last year, I think it's sort of, that was sort of the beginning of the end that he was potentially on his way out there and they just ended up in a place where the resources weren't right.

And I think it's kind of dumb because I think Christian Wilkins is really good. So it's about money and it's maybe a silly mistake. So dumb money. Yeah, mine's along the same line. Someone's going to pay Patrick Queen like $25 million a year. And I think that would be a dumb signing. And I don't think it's an expenditure of money. My queen comp was, this isn't really a movie, but this is a scene in a movie,

was I'm just queen instead of I'm just Ken, where Ken doesn't know if there's Ken without Barbie. how can you have Ken without Barbie? There it is. And we don't know if we can have queen without Roquan. And will all of that special playmaking ability go away when the pair learns to function separately? Baker Bayfield was my Barbie cop for similar reasons. But his Roquan was play action passing. And his venture out into the.

real world where he realized that he is like a privileged man is a play action heavy offense. You guys are so much better at this than I am. I think that's a bad thing though. We have very poison brains. Facing a Spag's defense is like the Mojo Dojo Casa House of being Baker Mayfield. Yes. Lindsay, do we have any Paw Patrol? Paw Patrol comps?

I'm still working at it. I love it. All right, Calvin Ridley. I don't have a good one. Oh, you got one? Baker Mayfield's is Liberty because she's the only puppy

who doesn't get a superpower only to find out at the end that she does have one and it was play action. Oh, I need to see this movie. I can't believe they weave that into the plot. They had one puppy

not have a superpower. That's terrible. And they were like, sorry you're not a superpower, you just have to teach the other puppies. They wouldn't like let her go on the mission. This poor puppy. It's like the Kellyn Moore of puppies. Like Kellyn Moore wasn't good enough to play quarterback.

So you had a coach. There's a lot of those. This was a missed opportunity for this just to be a 100% Paw Patrol segment. Next week. I've been saving some of my Paw Patrol takes this. So we'll get back. I love it. I love it. Any of the running backs?

Collectively, the running backs. or pop patrol. That's a good point. I did Guardians of the Galaxy 3. I don't know if you guys seen this movie. Really sad ending

and really like emotional movie. It's about the raccoon played by Bradley Cooper, of course. And he thinks he's like the only raccoon on the, he thinks he's like unique. And he thinks he's the only raccoon in the universe. And then at the end, he realizes, oh, there's a bunch of of raccoons.

And there's a bunch of them. And like, that's the thing with running backs. is like they all like Sequin Barclay, oh, he could run a route. He can line up outside and run a like a slant route. And like at the end of the day, there's a lot of. Austin Eccler, he can run around. Right. There's a lot of running backs out there actually in that and it's the ending is going to be sad.

It's not. I've seen Guardians of the Galaxy 3, but I don't remember the ending. Isn't it good that he discovers that there are other? Because they save them. They save the animals. Yeah, it's good, but it's sad. at the same time. I don't know.

I haven't seen it in a while. I may have forgotten the ending. So no opposite of a spoiler alert. Wrong spoiler. I don't know how the movie ends. I remember being kind of bittersweet. And maybe that's appropriate. I'm actually anti-rescuing animals, apparently.

Like, I'm sad at the ending. I want the bad guy's story. Stick to Popatrol. Yeah. I did the holdovers. Oh, no, go ahead. I did the holdovers for the same reason. They're like, they're just, they're the forgotten people.

They have to stay on campus for winter break. Yeah, I did the, I tried to watch the holdovers on the plane to the combine, and it wouldn't work. So I don't have a take for it. I don't have a comp for it. Josh Jacobs, that's my comp, because I couldn't figure out a cop for him. That's great. No, that's, I think that, you know, it's sort of an old school movie. It's a little bit of an old school position.

probably doesn't have it's appreciated but it doesn't have a lot of flash Josh Jacobs is the Paul Giamati of running back, actually. Going to in and out trying to get some buzz.

All right. I got a Russ. Does anyone have a Russell Wilson one? I do have a Russell Wilson one, but I would like to hear you first. I'm going to go with Anatomy of a Fall. I have not seen this movie. I have seen the trailer for the movie, though.

I've seen this. Well, so I was in my research. That's where I was going here too, because anatomy of a fault, what I learned from Wikipedia and watching the trailer is that it's about a woman who, the trial of a woman who may or may not have killed her husband and was she potentially framed for this crime. And it all goes back to Stevens' great clan for what the Broncos should have done to avoid paying $85 million in dead cap money, which would have been framing Russell Wilson for a crime. Incredible. Absolutely incredible. Also, like, you know, maybe the intricacies of the French legal system will come into play somehow.

It could. His contract is very, very complicated. It's contract situation. But it's also like... I love it. I love it. There's also something about dog vomit, which... That makes some sense with Russell Wilson with that offense the last few years. The dog is great, I have to say. The dog is phenomenal. No spoilers. No spoilers. This was one where like I was going to. going to read the Wikipedia page, but the Wikipedia page gives away the spoilers. And I saw the trailer and I was actually intrigued. So now I'm going to watch this movie. But it's a good movie.

I think you should watch it. For teams that are interested in signing Russell Wilson, it will be figuring out like why he fell off over the last couple of years. So there's my comparison, my point of comparison. I also thought that there could have been, there was like a Madam Webb opportunity with Russell Wilson just as like Sean Payton as Dakota Johnson just sort of. of in the most thinly veiled way possible, making it so clear that she absolutely hated her involvement with that movie and that entire experience.

And just like going on every talk show being like, there was nothing thinly veiled about how much Sean Peyton. Yeah, there was really nothing thinly veiled about Dakota Johnson's not a web press tour either. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Baker Mayfield was going to be my original, Madam Webb. Because, like, it looked, I think it looked like a fine movie based on the trailer, but then it was terrible. And I think, like, Baker Mayfield, you could talk yourself into Baker Mayfield. You watch a couple highlight videos. You'd be like, this guy was the number one pick overall for a reason.

But when you actually watch it and you see the movie, you realize not a lot there. I also thought there was like maybe a little bit of the Bradley Cooper's desperation for an Oscar and just the palpable like need for prestige accomplishment. There's a little bit of Russ in that too. He desperately wants an MVP vote and it's very funny that he's never to.

Yeah. It's never going to happen. It's never going to happen and we can just, I mean, like Bradley Cooper could win an Oscar. But it's, you know, You just, it's, you feel the wanting. It's a much better chance of winning an Oscar at some point than Russell Wilson does of getting a single MVP vote. I have to say, he was not going to win for this movie, but yeah.

He was very good as the raccoon in Gardens and Galaxy. It's actually incredible that that was the first, that was the first way that Bradley Cooper came up in this discussion. All right. Well, that was very fun. We will have a lot more time to talk about the free agent. in the weeks to come. I can't believe I didn't compare anybody to the heiress for a movie,

which is the only other thing that I saw in theaters. Wow. And half of the movie Wish, which I left early because Lena got sick. I should start seeing some movies. I thought the Paw Patrol cops were elite,

Lindsay. I probably, there's probably more. I do think that the running backs as a whole are like Paw Patrol because they all have like one thing that they can do. And together they think they have superpowers, but they're really just dogs. I don't know. I kind of want to see Pop Patrol now. That sounds like a lit. Except I'm still upset about the one dog without the superpowers. That's not nice. I will say the protagonist is a little girl dog.

So that's great. It's very empowering. Love it. Love it. Love to hear it. All right. On that note, Thank you, Lindsay. Thank you, Stephen. We will be back next week as free agency and the offseason continues. Lindsay, you will be popping up on this show occasionally as we get further into free agency for some more chats about all the moves, all the signings, all the contracts. Hopefully not all the movies. No, I think we need more Paw Patrol content. I'm not even kidding at all. control segment per appearance. That's her requirement. It's in the CPA.

It's going to be great. Austin Gale will be showing up on this feed as well with some draft stuff. I don't know if he has pop patrol takes, but we can find that out. As always, I'm Norr Pizziotti. He's Stephen Ruiz. She's Lindsay Jones. Thank you to Stefan Anderson for producing this episode. Thank you to Kiarg Evans for her work on socials.

Thank you, as always, to Connor Nevins and Arjuna Ramgapal for their additional production supervision. And to you for listening, Ben and Sheel will come up next with extra point taken on Friday. Must be 21 plus and present in select states. Fandwell is offering online sports wagering in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas Star Casino, LLC. Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler or visit fanduel.com slash RG in Colorado, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Tennessee, Vermont, and Virginia. call 1-800 next step or text next step to 533442 in Arizona,

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